The Trumpology series of columns are also published on Capitol Hill Blue where I am a columnist, and are informed by my 40 years of experience as a clinical social worker and psychotherapist. I worked in Michigan as Mason Mental Health Center director and Middleboro, Massachusetts in private practice. Opinions on Trump come from my understanding of psychiatric diagnosis, psychology, and psychopathology. I consider Trump to be a sadistic impulsive malignant narcissist.

“I think that their statement and the statements coming out of the South Korea and North Korea has been very positive,” he said.

“That would be a great thing for the world. We will see how it all comes about. I thought that North Korea were terrific. They went into the Olympics and went in with good spirit. They did well. Let’s see if we can carry it over.”

During a later press conference with the Swedish Prime Minister, Mr Trump was asked why North Korea had agreed to talks now.

I expect Kim Jung Un heard this loud and more clearly than some may like to imagine. After all, what world leader would say such a thing in front of TV cameras besides one suffering from a delusional mental disease? All this did was confirm what Kim already has to know.

Trump is about to go face to face against a formidable opponent who is armed not just with all the nukes it takes to be taken seriously on the world stage, but with an incredible amount of knowledge about what makes Trump tick.

All Kim and his advisors have needed to do was Google Trump malignant narcissism and use Google Translate to read what eminent American mental health professionals (and not so eminent ones like me) have to offer by way of insight into Trump’s psychopathology, his strengths and most importantly, his weaknesses.

The unanimous assessment of those in Trump’s immediate vicinity is shared by clinicians viewing him from afar. On Wednesday, in response to Trump’s tweet about the size and potency of his nuclear button, 100 mental-health professionals signed their names to a statement reading, “We believe that he is now further unraveling in ways that contribute to his belligerent nuclear threats … We urge that those around him, and our elected representatives in general, take urgent steps to restrain his behavior and head off the potential nuclear catastrophe that endangers not only Korea and the United States but all of humankind.”

For most of his presidency, the conversation about Trump’s mental well-being, and consequent capacity to perform the duties of his office, has been characterized by a willed naïvety. The president’s signs of senility aren’t subtle. His narcissistic self-regard is not mildly delusional; his impulse control is more than a little bit lacking. In October, a Republican senator likened the White House to an adult day-care center; said that he knew “for a fact that every single day at the White House, it’s a situation of trying to contain him”; and insisted that, in private, most of his GOP colleagues shared this assessment. Wolff’s reporting suggests that virtually everyone in Trump’s inner circle has witnessed signs of his mental decline, and believes him to be unfit for office.

Oct 11, 2017 - Narcissistic personality disorder—which, in my view, exists on a spectrum the more severe pole of which is sociopathy or what I have previously termed psychopathic narcissism—is one of the more popular and predominant diagnoses attributed to Donald Trump by mental health professionals in the book, ...

Oct 6, 2017 - Philip Zimbardo, who is best known for his Stanford Prison Experiment, and his co-author, Rosemary Sword, propose that Trump is an “extreme present hedonist .” He may also be a sociopath, a malignant narcissist, borderline, on the bipolar spectrum, a hypomanic, suffering from delusional disorder, ...

Aug 24, 2017 - His diagnosis is the Rosetta Stone to cracking the Trump Twitter code, revealing its underlying structure, and unfortunately, how much danger all the rest of us are in as a result. He is a malignant narcissist who is also on the bipolar spectrum. From a psychiatric perspective, the prognosis could not be more ...

Jun 25, 2017 - Still, therapists and shrinks offer their opinions: Psychologist John Gartner writes, “Donald Trump's malignant narcissism is toxic,” despite the fact that many who have broken the Goldwater Rule in the past have not only been reprimanded but kicked out of the APA. And although I'm not going to diagnose ...

Sep 29, 2017 - According to a new Quinnipiac poll, a majority of Americans believe that Donald Trumpis unfit to be president. That's pretty remarkable. But you have to wonder how much higher the number would be if people really knew what's going on. For the trouble with Trump isn't just what he's doing, but what he ...

Oct 26, 2017 - An organization of psychologists, Duty to Warn PAC, held marches around the country earlier this month to tell the public that Trump has malignant narcissism, a personality disorder that makes him unfit to serve. One psychologist, who's practiced for 25 years and worked with 27 other psychiatrists to ...

Malignant narcissism is a psychological syndrome comprising an extreme mix of narcissism, antisocial behavior, aggression, and sadism. Often grandiose, and always ready to raise hostility levels, the malignant narcissist undermines families and organizations in which they are involved, and dehumanizes the people with ...

Sep 12, 2017 - People who lack empathy … the lack of empathy is a critical aspect of it. People who are narcissistic.” He went on to say that Trump's case of “malignant narcissism” is particularly acute because he also seems detached from reality when he is agitated. An example is Trump's boasting of his crowd size being …

Stormy Story quotes of the day, from The NY Times:“A lawsuit opens the door, and judges almost always allow for a plaintiff to have a fishing expedition,” said Robert S. Bennett, the Washington lawyer who represented Mr. Clinton in the Paula Jones case. The questions could include, “Have you paid other people money?” he said.

David A. Super, a law professor at Georgetown University, said the lawsuit Ms. Clifford filed on Tuesday centered on a limited contract law matter, but he noted that it also specifically stated that Ms. Clifford would amend her complaint in the future to add the names of people who she said participated in wrongdoing with Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen.

He suggested that Ms. Clifford and her lawyer might be starting with a narrow argument aimed at getting the contract declared invalid, perhaps intending to broaden it later to include claims that Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen coerced her into silence. “If that happened,” he said, “they certainly could seek to depose Trump.”

And in that case, he said, “I can certainly imagine how it might get broader. And if it did, the wide array of Trump’s sexual interactions could be addressed, just as the wide array of Clinton’s sexual interactions was addressed in the Paula Jones case deposition.”

Stormy Daniels may tell us what Trump is like under and on top of the sheets, and whether he has unusual sexual preferences including fetishes or paraphilias which are not ipso facto psychiatric disorders.

However, I hope she is willing to tell us more and give us insight into the depth and breadth of Trump’s potentially dangerous psychopathology. Mental health professionals like me want to know whether the would-be president revealed aspects of his psychopathology we need to be concerned about in his time with his paramour.

There are two possibilities as to why Stormy Daniels decided to a have a sexual relationship with Trump, a married man in the public eye who had to keep their relationship secret.

One, the most simple, is that he paid her lots of money and lavished expensive gifts on her.

The other is that she fell for him.

We know that narcissists, even malignant narcissists, can be Intelligent, high functioning, soft-spoken, charming, seemingly emotional, gracious, well mannered, and kind. As long as others play by their rules they can develop relationships of a superficial sort.

We (both shrinks and the concerned general public) need to know whether Stormy observed signs of paranoia, lack of conscience and sadism not necessarily in how he interacted with her, but in what he said about others. We need to know just how pathological his lying was. Did he believe his lies or lie consciously to get what he wanted?

Did Stormy see or experience any of the following in how he treated her?

These are all traits of antisocial personality disorder, sometimes called sociopathy. Many people have sociopathic traits like being willing to ignore their better angels, for example, the stereotypically depicted used car salesman selling you a car they know has a transmission filled with sawdust. However, most despots are hardcore sociopaths.

Stormy Daniels may be in a position to offer the only in-depth picture of Trump’s psychopathology that we're likely to see.

On the other hand, she may have been a perfect gentleman with her and she won’t tell us anything besides he was a cheating husband.

Even if this is all the beef there is, it could be the final straw and lead to Melania leaving him and some of his blindly loyal diehard female supporters finally getting fed up with his misogyny.

I wonder if Melania Trump will actually read this lawsuit which includes a copy of the non-disclosure agreement (aka hush money agreement). The part that may be the most disturbing to her, if she does, is this:

the property refers to proof that the affair happened: “which includes, but is not limited to the originals, copies, negatives, prints, positive, proof sheets, CD-roms, DVD-roms, duplicates, outtake and the results of any means of exhibiting, reproducing, recording, and/or archiving….

2

What the non-disclosure agreement suggests is that Stormy Daniels has proof positive of her affair with the president. Once freed to release them they would be worth a lot more to her than a paltry $130,000. If she didn’ t sell them to the media, they release would make her the super-star of the porn industry even if she never so much as removed her shoes in front of a camera.

The release of this proof would make it far more difficult for Trump to deny all the other allegations of his sexual transgressions. But what about Melania?

This is the pseudonym used for Donald Trump in the lawsuit.

Whoever wrote this joke for Trump’s Gridiron dinner speech, which he perhaps stupidly saw fit to read, may have been prescient.

"So many people have been leaving the White House. It's actually been really exciting and invigorating 'cause you want new thought. So, I like turnover. I like chaos. It really is good. Now the question everyone keeps asking is, 'Who is going to be the next to leave? Steve Miller or Melania?'

He’s got his literal family—though his son-in-law is reeling from the controversy over his security clearance, there have been enough off moments in public to feed speculation about the state of his relationship with the first lady, and Donald Trump Jr. said in India last week that given all the president is dealing with, he feels “it’s almost trite to call him just to say hello.”

I can't envision Donald Jr. calling daddy just to say hello. To the point of this piece, I have trouble imagining Melania being to Trump what Michelle was to Barack Obama: a true soulmate and confident, a wife as best friend. Who does Donald Trump have to help ground him when he’s beset with narcissistic rage? Who can help him think rationally? Is it John Kelly whose advice can easily be undone by Trump’s go-to Fx News hosts? I doubt Kelly could do this. Unfortunately for the country, and perhaps the world, Melania is unlikely to break through Trump’s psychopathology and get him to see reason.

While cold-hearted cynics may say to Melania "you made your bed, now you have to sleep in it" there's no way she has avoided being emotionally torn each time a new accusation of her husband's sexual exploits is made public.

How much more can Melania take before she decides not to hide what I assume is her feeling of estrangement from her husband?

I doubt Trump would suffer the loss of emotional support if Melania moved out and on with her life and did what was best for her psychological health, and Barron’s as well.

However, he would lose what was left of the semblance of an image of a happy marriage. No more phoney optics. He would be left to travel without his wife even if she’s left in the rain when a hogs an umbrella.

March 6, 2018

Quote of the day:

"Believe me, everybody wants to work in the White House. They all want a piece of that Oval Office; they want a piece of the West Wing," Trump told reporters. "And not only in terms of it looks great on their résumé; it's just a great place to work." Gary Cohn resigning as top White House economic adviser.

Related, especially for Jews like me and my Jewish friends, who still are wondering how Jared justifies working for Trump.

Author Michael Gerson is a conservative Republican helped write
George W. Bush's second inaugural address that called for
neo-conservative intervention and nation building around
the world to effect the spread of democracy to third world countries.

I was thinking of writing about how lucky we are that Trump is mentally unbalanced (you may be tired of me always going the shrink route and calling him a malignant narcissist, which he is) because if he was psychologically healthy and bent on turning the country into an authoritarian autocratic regime with him as president for life his chances of success would be much greater.

But for all this, Trump seems utterly incapable of ruling even the 18-acre kingdom of the White House. Recent reports describe “chaos,” “tumult,” “disarray” and “pure madness.” With the policy process completely broken, staffers seem to occupy their time with blood feuds, leaking and legal consultations. Trump himself — “brooding,” “isolated and angry,” “mad as hell” — takes it out on Jeff Sessions and Alec Baldwin.

↓↓↓↓

But this is something different from authoritarianism. Trump approaches governing like a spectator, often acting as if someone else is really in charge. He seems most comfortable commenting from the sidelines, like an old Fox News viewer yelling at the television. Trump doesn’t know how to do the actual job of president and doesn’t seem aware that he doesn’t know. And few people around him know any better.

Put another way, Gerson offers the following apt description of Trump:

The president is assuring us that “there’s no chaos, only great energy.” From his perspective, this is true. He doesn’t experience inner turmoil, instead, he feels a surge of energy when he feels challenged, thwarted, and attacked, and reactively lashes out in ill-considered self-defeating anger.

.

If Trump had what it took to be an effective dictator the country and world would be in more serious trouble than it already is.

March 5, 2018

Breaking on MSNBC: "I think they may" in answer to question as to whether Mueller has something on President Trump. This is the scoop of the day. It was brought up minutes after it happened by Kristen Welker in today's Sarah Sanders press conference. I doubt Sanders even knew about this.

Refuses to comply with Mueller subpoena scoop on MSNBC
being interview on the phone by Katy Tur, stay tuned.

Today’s Daily Kos story.

In "Three Billboads Outside Ebbing, Missouri" (which I watched last night) Francis McDormand set out to get justice for her raped and murdered daughter in an unorthodox way. Winning the best actress Oscar offered her a much larger billboard for the fight for another kind of justice.

March 4, 2018

Major story of the day comes from The Washington Post and it fits in with what I've been writting about all week: Trump is decompensating.Comment here, on Daily Kos: This is the third story this week that the editors put on their recommended list, so it will stay on their front page all day. Yesterday my story got 214 comments, so I’m interested in how many this story will generate. Somebody at Daily Kos seems to have finally noticed me and decided that my psychological perspective on Trump is noteworthy enough to feature.

Two kinds of dangerous madness depicted on the front page of The Washington Post and one is Trump

What we are observing, what the 20 insiders told The Washington Post, illustrates that colloquial terms don't convey how grave the situation with Trump is. This is what concerned mental health professionals have been saying for well over a year. Trump is a malignant narcissist and the more stressed out he is the more unpredictably dangerous he becomes.

Today it is a trade war. As pundits have joked with gallows humor, this is better than a nuclear war.

The Post story is the news of the weekend, at least on MSNBC and every other objective news station.

Not everyone has a subscription to The Washington Post, so here are some excerpts (emphasis added):

Inside the White House, aides over the past week have described an air of anxiety and volatility — with an uncontrollable commander in chief at its center.These are the darkest days in at least half a year, they say, and they worry just how much farther President Trump and his administration may plunge into unrest and malaise before they start to recover. As one official put it: “We haven’t bottomed out.”Trump is now a president in transition, at times angry and increasingly isolated. He fumes in private that just about every time he looks up at a television screen, the cable news headlines are trumpeting yet another scandal.

↓↓↓

In an unorthodox presidency in which emotion, impulse and egooften drive events, Trump’s ominous moods manifested themselves last week....

↓↓↓↓

Retired four-star Army general Barry McCaffrey said the American people — and Congress especially — should be alarmed.

“I think the president is starting to wobble in his emotional stability and this is not going to end well,” McCaffrey said. “Trump’s judgment is fundamentally flawed, and the more pressure put on him and the more isolated he becomes, I think, his ability to do harm is going to increase.”

↓↓↓↓↓

Still, the developments have delivered one negative headline after another, leading Trump to lose his cool — especially in the evenings and early mornings, when he often is most isolated, according to advisers.For instance, aides said, Trump seethed with anger last Wednesday night over cable news coverage of a photo, obtained by Axios, showing Sessions at dinner with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, .…

March 3, 2018

Bragging Rights Dept: This is the second story in a week that the editors of Daily Kos put on their front page "Reommended List." Considering the 200 or more reader stories submitted every day, this is a big deal because it keeps the link on the opening page all day. Otherwise stories appear under "Recent Stories" and fall off the page into cyber-oblivion as more stories are added. I encourage you to simple register on Daily Kos and make comments on my stories. Of course, you can click the star to recommend and share on Facebook and Twitter 😇.

Not merely unglued: Ex-CIA Chief and I were alarmed by Trump's Alec Baldwin Tweet

Ex-CIA Boss Brennan Rattled About National Security After Alec Baldwin Tweet: After Putin’s boast about nuclear missiles, the former director said he was chilled by Trump’s priorities: “This is surreal.”

Brennan was asked by Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC if he thought Trump was “too unstable” to possess the nuclear codes that would allow him to launch an attack. Brennan responded that he was rattled by the president’s strange focus on Baldwin the morning after Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted of his nation’s nuclear capabilitiesto strike anywhere in the world, including the U.S. A simulated video presented by Putin appeared to depict next-generation nuclear missiles striking Florida.

Trump has yet to respond to Putin. Instead, he ranted against the actor in an error-riddled tweet early Friday morning (the tweet was later reposted with corrections).

“When I hear what Vladimir Putin was saying about the nuclear capabilities he has [and] then the president of the United States is tweeting about Alec Baldwin this morning, I mean, where is your sense of priorities?” Brennan asked. “I think a lot of Americans are looking at what’s happening with a sense of: This is surreal.”

There’s “deep, deep worry and concern for this country’s national security,” he added.

This week we have heard the words unglued applied to Trump every few minutes, or so it seems at least on MSNBC. This seems to be the word of the week which is, unfortunately, even more benign than last weeks word, unhinged.

Unglued is a word often used in songs with the same title but different lyrics, in a romantic or explicitly sexual way.

I think that using colloquial words like unglued and unhinged to describe Trump’s reactions when he is angry normalizes him.

The words minimize the conclusion that mental health professionals like me have drawn that he has a dangerous combination of personality disorders which together have been called malignant narcissism2, in addition to his being impulsive and paranoid.

While some mental health professionals don’t label Donald Trump as mentally ill even as they use their bona fides to warn the public that he’s unfit to be president because he’s dangerous, I belong to the “society” of mental health professionals started by Dr. John Gartner “dedicated to the proposition that Donald Trump is too seriously mentally ill to competently discharge his duties as president and must be removed according to the 25th Amendment.”

Donald Trump doesn’t become unglued and he doesn’t become unhinged. He has episodes of irrational narcissistic rage when he experiences a narcissistic insult or injury 1.

These are psychiatric symptoms of a disorder, malignant narcissism 2, which makes him dangerous.

REFERENCES

Narcissistic rage is a reaction to narcissistic injury, which is a perceived threat to a narcissist'sself-esteem or self-worth. Narcissistic injury (or narcissistic scar) is a phrase used by Sigmund Freud in the 1920s; narcissistic wound and narcissistic blow are further, almost interchangeable terms.The term narcissistic rage was coined by Heinz Kohut in 1972.

Narcissistic injury occurs when a narcissist feels that their hidden, "true self" has been revealed. This may be the case when the narcissist experiences a "fall from grace", such as when their hidden behaviors or motivations are revealed, or when their importance is brought into question. Narcissistic injury is a cause of distress and can lead to dysregulation of behaviors as in narcissistic rage.

Narcissistic rage occurs on a continuum, which may range from instances of aloofness and expressions of mild irritation or annoyance to serious outbursts, including violent attacks and murder. Narcissistic rage reactions are not limited to personality disorders and may be also seen in catatonic, paranoid delusion and depressive episodes.[2] It has also been suggested that narcissists have two layers of rage. The first layer of rage can be thought of as a constant anger (towards someone else), with the second layer being a self-aimed wrath.

2 Malignant narcissism

Malignant narcissism is a psychological syndrome comprising an extreme mix of narcissism, antisocial behavior, aggression, and sadism.[1] Often grandiose, and always ready to raise hostility levels, the malignant narcissist undermines families and organizations in which they are involved, and dehumanizes the people with whom they associate.[2]

But then he had to lash out at Alex Baldwin. This reflects on Trump’s mental state. Alarmingly, there is growing evidence that at times Trump cannot control what he says. He says things he later has to walk back or reverse himself on. His Tweets give us an amazing view of his mental instability. Were it not for the Tweets we might be able to lull ourselves into complacency. Instead, they are evidence that Trump is no longer fit to serve. See

His psychological defenses have worked more or less successfully until recently unless you count his needing to vent incessantly on Twitter against anyone who is critical of him. Now he is under attack at the same time as he is losing people like Hope Hicks who have given him emotional support. When he feels attacked he reacts with what’s called narcissistic rage, his judgment is impaired and his paranoid traits come out.

Narcissistic rage is a reaction to narcissistic injury, which is a perceived threat to a narcissist'sself-esteem or self-worth. Narcissistic injury (or narcissistic scar) is a phrase used by Sigmund Freud in the 1920s; narcissistic wound and narcissistic blow are further, almost interchangeable terms.[1] The term narcissistic rage was coined by Heinz Kohut in 1972.

Narcissistic injury occurs when a narcissist feels that their hidden, "true self" has been revealed. This may be the case when the narcissist experiences a "fall from grace", such as when their hidden behaviors or motivations are revealed, or when their importance is brought into question. Narcissistic injury is a cause of distress and can lead to dysregulation of behaviors as in narcissistic rage.

Narcissistic rage occurs on a continuum, which may range from instances of aloofness and expressions of mild irritation or annoyance to serious outbursts, including violent attacks and murder.[2]Narcissistic rage reactions are not limited to personality disordersand may be also seen in catatonic, paranoid delusion and depressive episodes.[2] It has also been suggested that narcissists have two layers of rage. The first layer of rage can be thought of as a constant anger (towards someone else), with the second layer being a self-aimed wrath.[3]WIKIPEDIA

He was so discombobulated this morning that his Tweet had to be spell-checked and reposted 10 minutes later. He even spelled Alec Baldwin’s name incorrectly.

Corrected Tweet: Alec Baldwin, whose dying mediocre career was saved by his terrible impersonation of me on SNL, now says playing me was agony. Alec, it was agony for those who were forced to watch. Bring back Darrell Hammond, funnier and a far greater talent!

Featured on HuffPost under the lead story about trade, the number two and three stories were about Tucker Carlson and Alex Baldwin.

If Trump loses Fox News entirely, and that would be up to Rupert Murdoch, Trump might become even more unstable, and therefore more dangerous.

We are now in a situation that Trump will have to become blatantly delusional, showing florid signs of psychosis which Pence and the inner circle can no longer deny. With all the talk about impeachment, we could quickly go back to looking to the 25th Amendment to save the country.

‘Imagine If Barack Obama Had Said That’

“Congress would be talking impeachment right now.”

After a crazy 24 hours, sources close to President Trump say he is in a bad place — mad as hell about the internal chaos and the sense that things are unraveling.

The big picture: Hope Hicks leaving is obviously a huge blow to him. Every time he reads about Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his head explodes. The staff is just trying to ride out the storm.

Everywhere you lookinside this White House, top officials are fighting, fomenting, feuding or fleeing, insiders say in conversations with us.

Hope Hicks

John KellyJared, Ivanka and Don Jr.

Josh Raffel,

Gary Cohn is at war with trade policy adviser Peter Navarro.

Trump is at war with Attorney General Sessions.

Intelligence chiefs

Be smart: Trump is in a bad, mad place, feeling ill-served and confined by staff. The people he genuinely enjoys and feels close to are gone (Keith Schiller), leaving (Hope) or getting pounded in the press (Jared).

The restraints are almost fully loosened, and what staff sees in private is more public than ever.

We have never seen top officials this concerned, defeated.

Mar. 1, 2018

Because this story was recommendedit stayed on the front page all day andso far this led to 162 comment.. Click above

He’s got his literal family—though his son-in-law is reeling from the controversy over his security clearance, there have been enough off moments in public to feed speculation about the state of his relationship with the first lady, and Donald Trump Jr. said in India last week that given all the president is dealing with, he feels “it’s almost trite to call him just to say hello.”

I can't envision Donald Jr. calling daddy just to say hello. To the point of this piece, I have trouble imagining Melania being to Trump what Michelle was to Barack Obama: a true soulmate and confident, a wife as best friend. While cold-hearted cynics may say to Melania "you made your bed, now you have to sleep in it" there's no way she has avoided being emotionally torn each time a new accusation of her husband's sexual exploits is made public. The oddities in the relationship between Donald and Melania Trump did not go unnoticed. For example, consider this from the gay website QWERTYBody language experts decode Donald and Melania Trump’s bizarre behavior

Six days ago, many people’s worst nightmare came true. Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America. As that terrifying fact starts to sink in, the analysis can begin.

Susan Constantine is a communication and body language expert who has trained U.S. government departments and top lawyers. She recently spoke with Micabout her observations of Donald and Melania Trump at last week’s inauguration, and what their body language says about the couple.

“If you didn’t know that they were married, you wouldn’t know that they are married,” Constantine says. “I don’t see any warmth or true love and compassion in that relationship whatsoever.”

It’s Constantine’s professional opinion, based on close observations of last week’s inauguration festivities, that Melania is more of “an object” to her husband than a wife or even a human being.

Speaking specifically about the moment when the Trumps were greeted by the Obamas at the White House entrance, Wood says, “Not only did he not wait, he went up the stairs and greeted the Obamas. He didn’t even look back to see if she was there or help her up the stairs.”

All the presidents in my memory had wives I could describe as their being best friends with their husbands. This even includes Hillary Clinton.Malignant narcissists don't have true best friends. Ask any woman married to one. There’s a cottage industry of books available to help women who are married to extreme narcissists.Now there's even more pressure on Melania Trump. Melania generally gets a pass from the press because they view her as a victim. The Washington Post reopened the questions about her EB-1 visa which Trump promised to answer during the campaign.

In March 2001, she was granted a green card in the elite EB-1 program, which was designed for renowned academic researchers, multinational business executives or those in other fields, such as Olympic athletes and Oscar-winning actors, who demonstrated “sustained national and international acclaim.”

“We called it the Einstein visa,” said Bruce Morrison, a former Democratic congressman and chairman of the House subcommittee that wrote the Immigration Act of 1990 defining EB-1.

The year that Knauss — now first lady Melania Trump — got her legal residency, only five people from Slovenia received green cards under the EB-1 program, according to the State Department.

In all, of the more than one million green cards issued in 2001, just 3,376 — or a fraction of one percent — were issued to immigrants with “extraordinary ability,” according to government statistics.

Melania Trump’s ability to secure her green card not only set her on the path to U.S. citizenship, but put her in the position to sponsor the legal residency of her parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs. The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the couple is now close to obtaining their own citizenship.

The biggest one: how did she convince immigration authorities that she qualified for the EB-1 program?

Many women fall head over heels in love with malignant narcissists. They may recognize the lack of empathy and selfishness in their boyfriends, or during courtship, their boyfriends hide it. Regardless, hope springs eternal and many women become victims by blaming themselves, and/or thinking they can change their men.

How does a shy ex-model make her way from Slovenia to, just maybe, the White House? To Melania Trump—and to the people who know her back home—her journey to marrying The Donald is like a fairy tale, or a too-crazy-to-believe rom-com. It’s a story full of naked ambition, stunning beauty, a shockingly Trump-like dad, and even some family secrets. Maybe she’s made for Washington after all.

2

Melania is as fastidious a wife as she is a mother, which Donald appreciates. Things come easy with her. “I work very hard from early in the morning till late in the evening,” Donald told Larry King in 2005. “I don’t want to go home and work at a relationship.” To the twice-divorced Donald, Melania is terrific. He’s never heard her fart or make doodie, as he once told Howard Stern. (Melania has said the key to the success of her marriage is separate bathrooms.) He can trust her to take her birth control every day, he boasted to Stern; she’s just amazing that way. She has the perfect proportions—five feet eleven, 125 pounds—and great boobs, which is no trivial matter. Stern once asked Trump what he would do if Melania were in a terrible car accident, God forbid, and lost the use of her left arm, developed an oozing red splotch near her eye, and mangled her left foot. Would Donald stay with her?

“How do the breasts look?” Trump asked.

“The breasts are okay,” Stern replied. Then, yeah, of course Trump stays. “Because that’s important.” There are other pluses. He appreciates Melania’s restraint when it comes to Shopping While Trump. “She’s never taken advantage of that situation, okay, as many women would have, frankly,” he has said. (“I prefer quality over quantity,” Melania tells me.) Donald does his part to make things work, too. “He is a very understanding husband,” Melania once told an interviewer. “If I say, ‘I need an hour, I’m going to take a bath,’ or I’m having a massage, he doesn’t have nothing against it. He’s very supportive in that way.” She lets him have his space; she’s not “needy” or “nagging,” as she tells me.

If you avidly follow the news you know why I posted this (which was in the Washington Post today)

What do I think about and what I do I think about it?

May, 1, 2016

I migrated everything from April to the basement file cabinet, so fitting of Spring, this blog starts anew, unfortunately, again it’s Trump on my mind. The archives for the two months I have been sharing cyberspace with billions of bloggers are below.

If you are a new reader, welcome. I do this blog alone, but always welcome critiques and ideas from you, I mean you, whoever is actually reading these words.